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We're all baking in super-hot weather right
now, and that means it's a good time to talk
about sets and reps for training in blast-
furnace temperatures.

In a nutshell:

Lower reps are less taxing when it's super
hot.

But like anything else, you need to do them
the right way.

One of the best ways to do it is to follow
the Doug Hepburn one rep system.

Hepburn won the World championship in Olympic
weightlifting on this system -- and became a
World record holder -- and was the first man
in history to bench press 500 pounds -- and was
able to perform lifts that read like something
right out of Ripley's Believe It or Not.

In fact, he got so strong that when the officials
at contests in Western Canada submitted his records
to the Canadian Weightlifting Federation in Montreal,
they rejected the records as being humanly
impossible!

Here's how you train like Doug Hepburn:

Instead of adding weight to the bar, add one more
rep.

For example -- start out with 1 rep in the bench press
with 300 lbs. (In other words, do 1 single with 300
lbs. Of course, you would warm-up before doing your
single rep. For example -- 135 x 5, 185 x 5, 225 x 3,
250 x 1, 275 x 1 and then 300 x 1.)

The next time you train bench press, do your warm-up
sets and then do 2 x 1 (two singles) with 300 lbs.
Rest 3 to 5 mins between singles.

The next time -- do 3 x 1 (three singles).

Work up to 5 x 1.

In your next workout, add 5 lbs. to the bar and drop
back to ONE single with your top weight (which would
be 305 lbs. now.)

Repeat the process.

It works well, provided you start with a SENSIBLE
weight for your top single. Not your one rep max. Try
90 percent. That's more like what Doug Hepburn used.